NATIONAL HARBOR, MD - The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) awarded Congressman David Price, the 2010 Congressional Leadership Award, awarded annually to members of Congress who most advanced the cause of immigration and immigrants during the previous year. Price will receive the award on July 3, 2010 during AILA's Annual Conference held in National Harbor, MD.

Congressman David Price serves as Chairman of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, overseeing the budgets for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Coast Guard, among other agencies. In that role Price has sought to move immigration enforcement priorities in a more constructive direction, to ensure that immigration detention and the provision of health care to ICE detainees are more responsible and humane, and to require more transparency and accountability of immigration enforcement programs. He is a longtime supporter of comprehensive immigration reform to address the many deficiencies with our current immigration laws and practices.

Price is also a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and the Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development. He is a recognized leader in foreign policy, heading the House Democracy Partnership, which he initiated to help strengthen parliaments in emerging democracies. He represents North Carolina's Research Triangle - a rapidly growing, largely suburban district that includes Raleigh, Cary, Durham, Chapel Hill, and surrounding communities. He received his undergraduate degree at UNC-Chapel Hill and went on to Yale University to earn a Bachelor of Divinity and Ph.D. in Political Science. Before he began serving in Congress in 1987, Price was a professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Duke University. He is the author of four books on Congress and the American political system.

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The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the professional development of its members.